The Digital Photography Book

Positioning Your Subject in the Frame

When people first start taking portraits, they put everybody right in the center of the frame. That’s not the worst place in the world to put a subject, but it’s not a very dynamic place for them to be. It’s centered. It’s predictable. It’s boring. It’s what beginners do. For a more professional, more dynamic, and more interesting look, we compose the shot so our subject isn’t in the center of the frame. We have them over in the left third of the frame (like you see here) or in the right third. This also has the added benefit of creating what we compositionally call “negative space,” which is an area of the ...